Carrying your ID on your cell phone is very easy. You just have to take advantage of your next visit to the police station

Just a year ago it hit the app stores MyDNIthe official app of the Government of Spain for carry your ID on your cell phone. Honestly, carrying the ID was the only reason I still carried the wallet in my pocket. I already have a driver’s license thanks to MiDGT and I haven’t used a coin or bill to pay in years, so the only thing left was the DNI.

And why am I telling you all this? Because since my license was expiring in a few days, I made an appointment to renew it this morning. And since I was at the police station, I took the opportunity to do that step that, to date, has prevented me from using MiDNI: in-person activation.

Visiting the police station. Unlike MiDGT, to use MiDNI it is necessary to register in advance in the system. Basically, we have to associate the phone number with our identity, and we can only do that in three ways:

1. On the National Police website using the physical DNI and a DNI reader, a device that I do not have.
2. At a Documentation Update Point (PAD) that you will find, in fact, in police stations and documentation units of the Police.
3. In person at said documentation units.

Electronic DNI Update Point at the Villanueva de la Cañada Local Police headquarters | Image: Villanueva de la Cañada City Council

The easiest? What I have done: use the PAD. It is a kind of ATM like the one in the photo above. You insert the ID with the chip facing up and follow the steps, which consist of entering your email, your phone number and a password. Once the process is completed, you just have to verify the account by entering the code that they will send us and that’s it.

Here I am forced to slap the National Police on the wrist for a usability issue. If you show a digital keyboard on the screen and the number 2 shows the @ above, what the user, who is used to using a mobile phone or tablet, will understand is that they must press and hold 2 to select the @. At no time will it assume that you have to press “Caps Lock” first to be able to enter the symbols. The simplest solution would be to put a button dedicated to @.

And why the PAD? Because you don’t need an appointment. If you are going to renew the DNIyou can take advantage of the fact that you are there with your brand new license and its five-ten years of validity (depending on your age), and register it in the system. If you don’t have to renew it, but you pass by a police station, you can take the leap and do it in just a few minutes, especially now that you know how to put the @.

Don’t keep your physical ID far away. Although carrying your ID on your cell phone sounds outrageous, the truth is that it will still be necessary to continue having your physical ID on hand. As the National Police points out, the physical DNI and MiDNI are “complementary”, there are use cases in which the physical DNI will continue to be necessary:

• If your cell phone runs out of battery, is offline, or breaks, you will have to use your physical ID.
• You cannot use MiDNI as a travel document to cross borders or in other countries.
• Nor can you use it for online operations or telematic procedures that require authentication or electronic signature. These continue to depend on Cl@ve, digital certificate, etc.

And if this were not enough, until April 1, 2026 it is not mandatory that public and private entities accept your digital DNI. But hey, at least it’s a step.

Cover image | Xataka

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